CZECHOSLOVAKIA

Czech and Slovak Ceskoslovensko former nation in central Europe encompassing the historic lands of Bohemia, Moravia, and Slovakia. Czechoslovakia was formed from several provinces of the collapsing Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, at the end of World War I. In the interwar period it became the most prosperous and politically stable state in eastern Europe. It was occupied by Nazi Germany in 193845 and was under Soviet domination from 1948 to 1989. In 1993 Czechoslovakia separated peacefully into two new nations, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The political union of Czechs and Slovaks after World War I was feasible because the two ethnic groups are closely related in language, religion, and general culture. An independent Czechoslovak state was declared by Tom Masaryk, Eduard Bene, and other leaders on Oct. 28, 1918, and was quickly recognized by France and other Allied opponents of Austria. Bohemia, populated by Czechs, constituted its western portion, while Moravia lay at the centre and Slovakia occupied the eastern portion. Bohemians and the closely related Moravians together accounted for two-thirds of the new nation's population. Under the leadership of Masaryk, who served as president from 1918 to 1935, Czechoslovakia became a stable parliamentary democracy and the most industrially advanced nation in eastern Europe. But after the rise to power of Adolf Hitler in Germany in 1933, the significant German minority in the Sudetenland of western Czechoslovakia began to lean toward Hitler's National Socialism. With the acquiescence of Britain and France, Hitler annexed the German-speaking Sudeten areas of Czechoslovakia in 1938 and had occupied all of Bohemia and Moravia by 1939 and turned these two regions into a German protectorate. Slovakia received nominal autonomy though it was dominated by Germany. The liberation of Czechoslovakia by Soviet troops in 1944, during World War II, helped bolster the Czech Communist Party while hindering the numerous other parties that emerged. The Communists became the largest party but still a minority. Clever maneuvering and unfailing support from the Soviet Union enabled the Communists to stage a virtual coup d'tat in 1948, and a people's republic was formed. Gradually, with Soviet supervision, internal opposition was crushed while the country's industry was nationalized and its agriculture was collectivized. But in the 1960s a progressively deteriorating economy discredited the government and led to grudgingly granted, and limited, reforms. When these failed, the Communist Party's leadership passed to the Slovak first secretary, Alexander Dubcek, in January 1968. He instituted a more openly reformist program, socialism with a human face, that encouraged non-Communists to participate in government and restored a number of civil liberties. In August 1968, however, Warsaw Pact troops invaded the country and returned it to conformity with Soviet-bloc norms. The country's new Communist leaders concentrated on making the state-run economy more productive while also stifling internal political dissent. Czechoslovakia in the 1970s and '80s was thus one of the more prosperous but also one of the more repressive countries in eastern Europe. In late 1989, however, a wave of democratization swept through eastern Europe with the encouragement of the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev. Czechoslovakia's Communist leadership found itself confronted by mass demonstrations in Prague opposed to its policies, and the party soon gave in to the demands for reform. In December the Communists formed a coalition government with non-Communist opposition groups. A multiparty political system was written into law, the writer and former dissident Vclav Havel became the country's new president, and free elections to the Federal Assembly were held in June 1990, with non-Communists winning resounding majorities. With the end of Communist rule and the reemergence of true multiparty democracy (the so-called Velvet Revolution), sentiment in favour of an independent Slovakia began emerging among the Slovak population. Disagreements also emerged over the pace of economic change, with Slovaks resisting the Czechs' preference for rapid privatization of the country's state-run industries. The results of parliamentary elections in June 1992 highlighted these differences, and talks between Czech and Slovak leaders later that year resulted in the peaceful dissolution of the Czechoslovak federation and the creation of two new nations, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, on Jan. 1, 1993.